As was widely expected, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and private equity (PE) investments in India have seen a substantial decline in value and volume compared to previous years, despite the revival in the second half of the year. The total value of deals (M&A and PE) announced in the calendar year 2009 (January-December 13) was $21.20 billion as against $41.54 billion and $70.14 billion in 2008 and 2007, respectively, as per a latest study by Grant Thornton India.
Deal volumes (M&A and PE-QIP together) have dropped in 2009 as compared to 2008. There were more than 766 deals in 2008, as compared to 488 in 2009. The average Indian M&A deal size was $37.55 million, while the average Indian PE deal size was around $50.55 million during the period.
In 2008, the top 10 M&A deals accounted for nearly 64% of total deal values. The total number of M&A deals announced during the calendar year 2009 stands at 267, with a total announced value of $10.03 billion as against 454 deals with a total announced value of $30.95 billion in 2008 and 676 deals amounting to $ 51.11 billion in 2007. There were eight M&A deals with deal value of over $250 million in 2009 as compared to 24 deals and 22 deals in 2008 and 2007, respectively.
Similarly, the value of cross-border deals (both inbound and outbound) announced in 2009 has reduced by almost 84% from 2008. The value of inbound deals has declined from $15.50 billion in 2007 and $12.55 billion in 2008 to $3.11 billion this year. The Russian government's acquisition of a strategic stake in Sistema-Shyam Telecom for $676 million was the largest inbound deal in 2009. Oil & gas, telecom and pharma, healthcare & biotech sectors were the leaders as far as sectoral values were concerned. These sectors garnered $2.53 billion, $1.78 billion and $1.04 billion worth of deals, respectively. Together, they accounted for as much as 53% of the total M&A deal value during the same period, the study said.
The total number of private equity and QIP deals announced during 2009 stands at 221 deals, with a total announced value of $11.17 billion compared to 312 deals with an announced value of $10.59 billion in the year 2008 and 405 deals with an announced value of $19.03 billion in 2007.
CG Srividya, partner, specialist advisory services, Grant Thornton India, said, “The year 2009 has been a year of introspection for Indian deal makers. It has been a year that witnessed economic uncertainties. The year has also seen significant consolidation activities with domestic dealmakers outdoing their cross-border counterparts in M&A deal activity. After a gap of three years, we are seeing domestic M&A being higher than both inbound and outbound deals put together. There have also been several large group restructuring deals that have been done to strengthen operations, build on synergies and save on costs.”
There has been a decline in the volume of PE deals in 2009 as investors continued to focus on existing portfolios and applied greater precaution while selecting targets for investment. However, the average PE ticket size increased from $33.93 in 2008 to $50.55 million during 2009. The top 8 PE deals accounted for more than 41% of the total PE deal value in 2009. In 2008, the top 8 deals accounted for 28% of total deal values for the whole year.
The highest proportion of PE/QIP investment (in terms of announced value) was made in the real estate & infrastructure and banking & financial sectors with an investment of $4.6 billion and $1.3 billion respectively, together accounting for over 53% of Private Equity/QIP investment made in India during 2009.
Srividya said, “We saw private equity investors were rather happy to see cash as part of their portfolio and IPOs became unheard of, during the first few months of the year.”
Source: Financial Express